Sorting Through a Lifetime of Stuff

Are you trying to deal with an inheritance?

Have you inherited a house full of a lifetime of furniture, memorabilia, collections and general household items. As a personal organizer I have helped many people with this problem. The process of going through the accumulations of a loved one can be daunting. It’s a vast, time-consuming and heart-wrenching thing to have to do. You can’t take it all home with you, you probably already have a house that is well-outfitted and probably full anyway.

What do you do with all this stuff?

After the initial process of discarding items that you know are not saleable, then what about all the rest. There are many charitable organizations (Good Will, Disabled Veterans or The Salvation Army) that will accept donations which will then be tax deductible.

What remains are the things that meant something to your family member. That is really the problem area. If you don’t want to keep them yourself or give them to someone else in the family there are resources you can use. There are auction houses in the Baltimore area that will come to the home and evaluate the value of these things. They can then schedule a home auction to sell large pieces of furniture, china, silver, stemware and collectibles. They do the advertising and handle the actual auction. For this help they will take a percentage of the profits of the sales.

Another alternative is to try to sell them yourself on ebay or Craigslist. The profit will be yours but shipping headaches should be considered in the actual profit margin.

Whatever you choose to do, it won’t be easy and you may find that you need the emotional and physical support of someone else to help you make the best decisions.

Remember, help is out there.